It's always an exciting time when there's a new release! I have two cards for you today. My first card features all of the cutie patootie little monsters from the new set Oogles all peeking out from a die-cut frame.

I started by wet watercoloring two panels of watercolor paper using a rainbow of colors from my Sakura Koi Watercolor set. It came out in a sort of tie dye fashion. Once it was dry, I stamped my images repeatedly placing them in areas where I knew they'd get the best color effect. I then fussy cut them all out. I coated them all with a quick swipe using my Wink of Stella glitter brush.

The black frame with the word 'joy' that you see is this Die-namics die from MFT. I put adhesive around the back of the black frame and then placed my cut out images exactly where I wanted them. Once I placed them I then added that panel to the numeric paper in the background and trimmed off any extra that was hanging out of the sides.

I placed my sentiment using Hero Arts black ink (my favorite) and then added the heat embossed gold hearts and stars for an added touch.

I couldn't help myself and created a second card using the Oogles set. This time I chose the little splat monster using my Distress Inks, stamping on watercolor paper in a repeated rainbow pattern.

I very lightly spritzed the entire panel using a mister bottle of water to give them a fuzzy effect and then outlined them with a very thin Copic multiliner to give them more definition. I placed a few scattered sequins around the card and added my sentiment on a hand cut flag banner.

The possibilities with this amazing set are endless!!

Now, onto some more fun information!! I know that you're simply going to LOVE all of the New Release Goodness! This crazy-cute Mini Set called Nessie, is FREE when you spend $40.00or more during the month of January, 2015.

Now let's keep this hop moving onto the next TAWS design team member Nath! I've added the entire hop list below in case you lose your place! Thanks again ever so much for being with me today! It was a pleasure! See you again soon!

Monday, December 29, 2014

I'm so happy to be posting my first official sneak peek for The Alley Way Stamps or TAWS! Today I'm peeking a sentiment set called 'Bubbly' and it's fantastic with open work letters which make it perfect for all kinds of techniques!

Today I've stamped on this heavy weight vellum 55 lb to be exact. It's seriously amazing stuff. I used my anti-static powder tool to clear the vellum from having any embossing powder stick where I didn't want it to. I then inked my stamp with black craft ink and then coated it with black embossing powder. I let my heat gun warm up for a good thirty seconds before bringing it to the vellum to heat emboss. I find this gets the job done faster and creates less of a chance of burning the paper.

Once my heat embossing was done I coated the interior of the letters with my Wink of Stella clear glitter pen/brush. It's hard to capture in the photos but it adds just a subtle shimmer when you see it in person.

For the background I took a piece of watercolor paper and my Heidi Swapp spray mists in gold and red and splatter painted the background. I stitched a line of red/white thread on the top to anchor the two panels together and then added a few sequins for an added pop of texture and shine.

Thanks for coming by today to see my project!! See you soon for the TAWS blog hop happening on December 31st!!

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

You'll have to pardon us for a bit while we take a little break during this, the busiest time of the year. I've got a combination of some sick children, sick husband and I'm still on the mend myself. I feel fine but I'm still coughing and sniffling - which is annoying after two + weeks.

So while we hustle and bustle my blogging will be intermittent and not daily as it usually is. I will be posting here and there throughout the next couple of weeks. We will be returning to our regularly scheduled homeschool programming on Monday, January 5th.

Friday, December 12, 2014

Greetings!! I tried posting last night but blogger was being uncooperative so today's a two-fer! Yesterday we had a regular day of school with the focus on cave paintings! We did a virtual tour of the caves at Lascaux. Talk about AWESOME!! We did the tour 4 times over. Then we opened up some brown, paper grocery bags and I set out some rustic brushes and sticks along with earth colored paint and let the kids have at it! They even used some of my spray mists that I use in my crafting to create an outline of their hands the way early man did.

hers

his

Today was a busy day as far as schooling was concerned. They had a spelling quiz AND they had a 3 page test on their knowledge of early mammals and man. They ROCKED it out!! I let them use their notes but I am thrilled that they are able to navigate through their notes to help them find the correct answers. They played a lengthy game of Timeline after their tests. If you aren't familiar with it's a fantastic card game that teaches when things happened in history. We have both the inventions version and diversity version. We combine the two to make the game more challenging. It's totally awesome and such a great learning experience! We had a group reading session after this and then Ari was up. We headed to our local trampoline park for a 3 hour jump session!! What a great way to end a Friday!

spelling

mammals and early man test

rocked it out!

totally awesome!

appropriate I thought!!

snuggled

brain drain time!! We jumped for 2 1/2 hours and then they used their allowance money to play video games!

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

You're not seeing sunrise pictures from my morning runs because...well it's been super cloudy and rainy AND I've not run in a couple of days due to my terrible cold. I'm finally, finally on the mend and I keep pumping in the homemade spicy juices and using my peppermint oil to comfort me. Better now than at the holidays for sure!!

Today we've rolled through a lot of material. We worked through our spelling words on the board. The children have a spelling quiz on Friday along with a test on the material we've been studying on early man so the oral quizzing is very helpful for them. I gave a detailed description of each spelling word and asked them what the word is and also how to spell it. They love it as they view it as a game.

We then read more about all of the different types of early man from Australopithecus to present Homo sapiens sapiens and everyone in between. The children took detailed notes for about an hour and put them in their binders.

Tyler worked on algebra and fractions today and Kendall continued with her multiplication moving onto 4 digit by 1 digit and some word problems.

The children headed off for DEAR time and then we headed off to one of our favorite places - Barnes and Noble and then to one of our local and AWESOME libraries!

I'm a stay at home wife to my darling hubby of almost 19 years. I'm also a homeschooling Mum of 3 small, beautiful, delicious and often sticky children and a gorgeous and sweet pitbull named Katie.
I've always loved art, crafting and photography. I find time every single day to work one or all of these into the mere 24 hours that we have daily. I find it fulfills my soul, my mind and keeps my "zen" in check.